Ireland 27; Wales 18
Underwhelming! For large tracts of this game you would think it was Wales who were trying to complete the Triple Crown – that is, adding to wins over England and Scotland – so unrecognizable was this Ireland team at Cardiff on Saturday.
Losing 18-10 at the interval and with a 20-minute red card less than half-completed, it looked like an upset could be on the cards to shock the rugby world.
By game’s end, Ireland had regrouped and the Welsh effort of the first half petered out midway through the second, yet the game left a big question mark over the men in green, sorry, white, as they now prepare for a real denouement of the Six Nations series against France in Dublin on Saturday, March 8.
Hindsight on this season may yet point to the Welsh game as the ideal preparation to take on the French because Ireland have rightly shipped criticism for their lack of flair, handling and discipline with penalties resulting in our momentum being put backwards by 250 meters over the course of the game.
Simon Easterby, the Interim Head Coach, looked a forlorn figure at times as he watched the likes of Garry Ringrose, Andrew Porter and Joe McCarthy fail to get up to their usual high standards in leading the Ireland charge for glory.
And he was spot on when he declared afterwards: Simon Easterby cut a relieved figure in the aftermath of Ireland's victory in Wales but said he was proud of his players after getting out of a “bit of a hole.”
The champions found themselves 18-10 down and a man down as the Welsh threatened to pull off a massive shock at the Principality Stadium.
With Bundee Aki coming on in the 55th minute for the red-carded Ringrose Ireland found their poise again and while not tearing up trees, they did enough to guide themselves home against a rapidly tiring home outfit.
Easterby’s take on the day was thus: “Pleased with the result but lots of things in the game that we feel we could have done better. We go down in the game, we go down a man and then we go down on the scoreboard.
“We came in at half-time and felt like if we played in the right way and did things better our way then we felt we could dominate them.
“We had a lot of possession and territory for 30 minutes, just didn't quite get our accuracy right in terms of scoring the points that we needed. We knew that Wales would come back into it if we gave them an opportunity and we did that. I was pleased that we responded to being in a bit of a hole and we dug ourselves out and took the game away from them in the last 20, he added.
Ringrose was pulled up for his high challenge on Ben Thomas five minutes before the interval, and talk about taking advantage – Wales scored 12 points when Ireland had 14 players on the field on either side of half-time.
They then led 18-10 and the big question was asked - would Ireland not just stumble but fall?
Said Easterby: “I was pleased with how the lads responded to that, even though we conceded at the end of the first half we found our way back into the game when we were down a man and Bundee coming on made a huge impact. We knew that they would be tough opposition. We knew that they would play with passion, you look at some of the tries they scored, even the one Ellis Mee didn’t score in the corner, they have the ability to play well and play with ball in hand. They made us work really hard for it. Matt [Sherratt, Welsh interim coach] has done a brilliant job.
“We knew the game would be a lot tougher than some people in the media suggested and it panned out that way."
Ireland just added four points to the table with their two tries from Jack Conan in the first half and Jamie Osborne in the second, and 17 points off the tee for Sam Prendergast and stand at 14 points at the top of the table, whereas France have 11 with a much superior differential courtesy of their 73-25 win over Italy on Sunday. England are third on 10 points, having beaten Scotland 16-15.
Ireland: J Osborne; M Hansen, G Ringrose, R Henshaw; J Lowe; S Prendergast, J Gibson-Park; A Porter, D Sheehan (capt), T Clarkson; J McCarthy, T Beirne; P O'Mahony, J van der Flier, J Conan Replacements: G McCarthy (for Sheehan 75), J Boyle (Porter 71), F Bealham (Clarkson 49), J Ryan (McCarthy h/t to 50, HIA, 65), Ryan Baird (Conan 44), C Murray (Gibson-Park 78), J Crowley (Hansen 73), B Aki (Ringrose 54).
SCORERS
Ireland: Tries - Conan, Osborne Cons: Prendergast Pens: Prendergast (5)
Wales: Tries - Morgan, Rogers Cons: Anscombe Pens: Ancombe (2)
